GeorgeGordonByron拜伦.ppt

George Gordon Byron (1788-1824)
(Byron)
Lecture Outline
General survey: he Scian and the Teian muse
synecdoche: The hero's harp, the lover's lute
glorious in the past while refusing the fame and being mute to the sounds at present.
Stanza 3
The mountains look on Marathon --
And Marathon looks on the sea;
And musing there an hour alone,
I dream'd that Greece might yet be free
For, standing on the Persians' grave,
I could not deem myself a slave.
Question 2
What’s significance of Marathon in this stanza?
allusion: war of Marathon, Greeks won victory over Persian troops
by now, on Persians’ grave, Greeks turn into slave and were chained.
Stanza 4
A king sate on the rocky brow  
Which looks o’er sea-born Salamis;
And ships, by thousands, lay below,  
And men in nations;—all were his!
He counted them at break of day—
And when the sun set, where were they?
King: Persian king
Allusion: martial war at Salamis to indicate the past glorious time
Stanza 5
And where are they? and where art thou,  
My country? On thy voiceless shore
The heroic lay is tuneless now—  
The heroic bosom beats no more!
And must thy lyre, so long divine,
Degenerate into hands like mine?
Encouragement and advocacy to point out the degeneration of the country
Stanza 6
’Tis something in the dearth of fame,  
Though link’d among a fetter’d race,
To feel at least a patriot’s shame,  
Even as I sing, suffuse my face;
For what is left the poet here?
For Greeks a blush—for Greece a tear.
(dearth: be lack of)
Stanza 7
Must we but weep o’er days more blest?  
Must we but blush?—Our fathers bled.
Earth! render back from out thy breast   
A remnant of our Spartan dead!
Of the three hundred grant but three,
To make a new Thermopyloe!
(render: present)
Question 3-4
What’s special effect in the line of “must we but blush?—Our fathers bled”?
What’s connotation of allusion of Thermopyloe?
Stanza